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How long do house-elves live?

Hey guys!

So yeah, Iíve been taking a lot of advantage of you guys lately.

So, this one question is easier than my previous one (about the Ministry and whatnot). So the question is: How long do you think a House-elf could live? A couple of decades? A couple of centuries? What are your opinions?

I would say they probably have about the same life-span as humans. Kreacher is old, and I got the impression that he was serving Sirius's parents before Sirius and Regulus were born. His family had been serving the Blacks for centuries, and I think Kreacher's turn probably came around the time Sirius's parents were married.

So, to answer your question, I think they live about as long as humans, maybe a little bit less.

Now I don't know for sure, but my opinon has always been that they live for about 100 years or so (give or take 20 years.) Just because they are magical creatures and there doesn't seem to be too many "baby elfs" that we know of running around. i thnk the lack of babies may somewhat smybolize a long life for them. i don't know! that's just what i've always in the back of my mind thought. Hope that helped!

I think they would actually have a longer lifespan than the humans. Dumbledore was in his one sixties when he died, and if he hadn't been stupid enough to try the ring on, then he would have probably lived another twenty or so years.

I think a normal healthy House Elf could live to be two hundred easily. I think the baby Elves would come around the last thirty years of a Elf's life, so they could train the babies in the jobs expected of them.

I agree with red haired mom, and they would probably live to be really old. I've always imagined Kreacher to be around the 200 mark. Also, I don't think Dobby and Winky are that young either. I would think that the oldest they'd probably get to though is around 250. I can't really see them living much longer than that.

Yeah, even i agree with Wendy. I think elves live longer than humans. Maybe around 200. I guess, Kreacher would around 170-180 years old. I mean, he was still quite active when he wanted to work. Dobby and Winky, hmm, Maybe 30-40?? They don't seem very old to me. Dobby is definitely immature in COS, the way he tries to save Harry by hurting him; etc. Even, Kreacher seems a bit immature to me. that might because he is so old and one generally sees that as people grow really old, they become children again. Or in Shakespeare's words, old age is the second childhood. Actually, all this might have nothing to with age and house-elves could be really immature in general. But, we see Dobby as a more mature elf in the later book.. I don't know..

Really confusing post. I hope i made some sense. Anyway, yeah, in my opinion, elves live for around 200 years!

From the attachment Kreacher showed to Mrs Black, I'd have to say he served her since the beginning--her birth or his. He refers to Sirius as though he's older than him, so I'd say they live for two or three generations, roughly. Let me do the math and figure out what that adds up to: yes, around two hundred years (or something like that, I'm really quite bad at math). Kreacher would probably live on to serve Harry (assuming he lived out his days with Kreacher), but I don't see him living much past Harry's lifetime, perhaps not even until Harry's children are very old.

I agree that Dobby strikes one as being a bit younger. He's flightier than other house elves, and more worried about displeasing them (the Malfoys), and this makes me think he's been around only as long as Lucius and Narcissa have been married. He'd probably be the same age as Harry in elf-years (whatever ratio that works out to be), for his sacrifice was very youthful and passionate, something I can't see an older more wisened elf doing. He's also not very set in his ways (the whole freedom and rebellion thing we associate with youth).

Back on track: I'd have to say they live around 200 years, give or take twenty some (and that's on average, there are probably earlier deaths and life spans that go beyond)